Last Thursday was the Goedhuis & Company away day. A day every year where we all descend on the Chairman’s home in Northamptonshire and do our best to drink as well and as much as we all possibly can in the short time we have available. This year was no exception, in fact we think it was one of the best yet!
Those coming from London met at Euston station… croissant, pain au chocolat and Champagne later we arrived in Northampton to be ferried to our first and only activity of the day… go-karting.
Very classic and very fun… there was an incredible amount of competitiveness and after 15 laps, 2 semi-finals, I found myself in pole position for the final. A brilliant and well constructed effort for the past hour and half…. until the second lap of the final when I see an approaching sharp bend, really loving the fact it is hurtling towards me yet so pumped with adrenalin that I completely.. fail.. to brake until the last possible second, manoeuvre a 540 degree spin off the track and into a field…the rest is history, lets just say it could have been a very different story..
2.30 pm, sweating from our efforts, we finally hit Johnny’s house and I have never seen so many people literally gasping for a cool glass of Ch d’Esclans Rosé (Sacha Lichine’s super smart and very delicious venture from Provence). We were met with an utterly idyllic setting, a small open sided marquee, bbq in full throttle, magnums of rosé, sun shining… we got stuck into poached salmon, coronation chicken, marinated bbq sausages, beautiful salads, oh and wine……
We kicked off with Puligny Montrachet, 1er Cru Clavaillon, Domaine Leflaive 2001, absolutely off the chart as you would expect, this didn’t last long…the reds were calling, all in Magnum format we kicked off with a brace of fantastic red burgundies by Etienne Grivot, Vosne Romanee, 1er Cru Les Rouges, 2000 and 1996 vintages, then onto Ghislaine Barthod’s 1er Cru Chambolle Musigny, Les Beaux Bruns (maybe the wine of the day), then we jumped into the Rhone and really enjoyed Christophe Bonnefond’s Cote Rotie, Les Rochains 2000 and the sensational 1998 Clos des Papes, a feat of excellence.
After an hour of very optional kick-about football, quite a lot of sliding tackles and broken shades (don’t worry there was super glue to hand), the train home was calling..it was the prospect of a dinner party that evening that had me prickling slightly….lets just say I was very nervous and had every right to be…!
Until next year…